Monochrome
by ihrtryoma
Summary: "dragon flew low ripping with its teeth through the beast as it were a minor annoyance. The dragon landed rearing its head back in victory, huffing and turned to James and lowered its head then faded" the wizarding world is headed into a new age of large beasts called monochromes and James.S.P is caught in the center of it.


It was a nice day overall and one of those days where it was just teeming with kids and their parents, after all in two weeks Hogwarts would open its doors yet again like every year inviting promising young students into her yet again including slightly older students to return from their previous year. It was not surprising that among these kids was James Sirius Potter, Albus Severus Potter, and Lily Luna Potter. Fame had cast it's ever present spell over these 3 but they refused to let something like this bother them.

Like every other child, they were excited to start the New Year "dad, can I meet Scorpius, he just texted me that he's at Junius'" Albus asked, bouncing a little ready to take off once his father said the word. Harry raised his eyebrow; he hadn't seen Scorpius for a good two weeks. "Dad, come on Rose is coming too" he said.

"Alright, I suppose, meet us a bit later for your robes; we want to make sure your size hasn't changed" he said. Albus took off yelling "ok" to say he got the message running off to meet his cousin and best friend.

James Sirius watching silently as his brother ran off, James at 14 was rather in the too cool phase or perhaps that was his natural state since he'd been that since 3rd year. "Daddy, can we go get my wand first?" Lily asked, nearly bouncing with excitement like Al had.

"I suppose so" Harry Potter, Co-Head of the Auror Department who claimed that he'd rather not be full head if it meant not seeing his children and not being able to go out into the field. Papers were clearly not his thing. He smiled "what do you say James, would you like to witness Lily's first encounter with her wand?" he asked.

Lily looked up at her big brother "oh would you, James?" she asked, trying her best cute expression which typically worked on James. Both her brothers couldn't help the soft spot and protection over their little sister. Ginny laughed, they were like her own brothers, 'built-in-bodyguards' and that her first boyfriend had better watch out.

James considered with a blank face then his gaze softened and he nodded "sure, Lil" he agreed. Lily grinned and pulled him along to Olivander's now run by the grandson of the man.

"Good morning, Lily" Evet Olivander, a fairly young man of 24, greeted; he was like his grandfather in many ways especially his memory of never forgetting a face nor a wand.

"Hello, Mr. Olivander, I'm here to get a wand" she said excitedly.

"I'm sure, let's see" he chuckled and started taking out wands and as usual it took a few times before Lily found the right one which brought a flower shooting out of her wand. "Perfect, that's a good wand for charms, use it well" he said.

"Thank you" Lily said.

Harry stepped forward to pay for it while Lily showed her brother the wand who nodded at it then took out his phone when he heard a buzz. He opened it "hey dad, Jeremy's next to Gringott's" he said, unlike Albus, James left most things unsaid because they were implied. It kept his relatives on their toes especially Harry who joked his wits never faded because of his son.

"Go ahead; remember what I said to Al?" Harry asked.

"Got it" James said then kissed his mum on the cheek and gave Lily a big hug "congratulations Lily" he added. It was never said that James, though silent and cool most of the time, didn't love his family.

"Well, shall we get the rest of your things?" Ginny asked glancing at her son walking away.

"Yup" Lily agreed and Harry followed, he had this strange tightness in his chest he couldn't shake. He shook his head and told himself to stop being paranoid. He often had false senses especially in former war places where he remembered what it looked like during it. On Auror Missions he trusted his instincts but he was reluctant to coddle his children, they needed to walk on their own sometimes.

They walked all over Diagon Ally finding their children's texts and new supplies.

About 2 hours later Harry still couldn't shake the feeling "I'm going to go find James, call Albus and tell him we're going to get his fittings" he said.

"Harry?" Ginny asked, Harry turned back to his wife and couldn't help letting his worry show on his face and Ginny went pale "go, run!" she said. She of all people in his life knew how much a feeling, instinct could affect him and how often he was right.

Harry nodded running, pushing through people in effort to find him when his heart stopped at the sound of an explosion. The main square of Diagon Ally had smoke everywhere, red smoke and ice cold fear ran down his spine. Harry had a duty too, he turned around and whispered the spell and his wand quickly did its work creating a barrier around the square "everyone! Gather your children and families and leave!" he yelled.

"Harry Potter" a woman whispered and people turned around and started to leave.

Harry ran close to the square desperately looking for his son, his eldest, he could feel his heart pulling him to the right place. "James!" he yelled when he found him, James turned. His eyes was shut, blood running over his eyelid; he held his arm which had a lot blood coming out but somehow he was on his feet.

Harry pulled him into his arms "oh thank Merlin, are you alright?" he asked.

James was unbelievably calm still "I can't find Jeremy, dad, he was with me; I need to find him" he said, his voice shook uncontrollably but his determination didn't allow any room for failure.

"Alright, do you have an idea of where he might be?" Harry asked glancing at his arm; Harry tore his sleeve off and tied it firmly around James arm.

James started to walk and Harry followed "I- dad there's something here; I don't know what they are but I, it bit me" he looked scared as he moved forward.

"Calm down, what bit you?" Harry asked.

"Patronus, they looked like one but these were" James shook his head "they were evil, dad" he said "like you could taste it, black magic" he said then gasped and ran forward and Harry followed.

Harry froze, everything James said made sense suddenly, and they_ were_ like patronus except they were evil. Black and red, their eyes glowing orbs; one hovering over James best friend was a huge thing unlike anything Harry had ever imagined even before magic. A true monster with huge teeth dripping blood from its maw and claws the size of small boulders.

Harry aimed his wand "reducto" nothing happened it just looked angrier "stupefy, levicorpus, sectumsempra!" he yelled and this one did something at least but not much "Expecto Patronum!" he yelled.

The stag shot out of his wand and slammed it's antlers into the beast and the beast howled a banshee cry. The stag rammed it again and it growled and aimed it's claws at his patronus and Harry flinched as the stag actually bled. He looked down expecting to find a wound on himself too but only the pain lingered.

He turned to James and his eyes widened, his son had red eyes. He was afraid it had possessed him but the fear went away as James aimed his hand at the beast which got slammed into a brick wall. James black hair was wild with glowing red streaks that pulsed. The creature got up, even angrier than before and cried an ear splitting roar and charged at James. Harry pulled James to the side fearing he'd get run over but suddenly a red and blue creature appeared. A dragon, translucent like a patronus appeared, red eyed like James it let out a low growl a warning to the beast.

The beast took no heed and roared as it charged the dragon, its challenger; the dragon flew low ripping with its teeth through the beast as it were a minor annoyance. The dragon landed rearing its head back in victory, huffing and turned to James and lowered its head then faded. James legs collapsed under him and Harry caught him.

The red smoke disappeared allowing a clear view of the damage, "Jeremy!" James reached out and Harry helped James to his friend and immediately James checked his pulse and let out a breath with shining eyes. Harry suddenly remembered his barrier and took it down and suddenly Aurors started to appear. The entire square had blood everything, black blood from the monster, red blood from Jeremy and James still dripping on the floor.

"St. Mungos, lets go" Harry said firmly to James leaving no room for discussion.

"Jeremy first" James added and Harry picked Jeremy up gingerly and apparated on the spot. It didn't take 5 seconds for the son of Harry Potter and his friend to get a room and get treated quickly.

"Harry!" he turned to find Ginny, in a blur of red hair hug him tight "what happened?" she demanded as Albus and Lily trailed not far behind.

"I'm not too sure yet, I need to go to the Aurors and I'll have to talk to you later. It's a bit…" he hadn't the words.

"Go, I'll stay here"

Harry nodded and quickly took the floo to Auror HQ "Harry" Drilling said.

"It's difficult to describe what happened" Harry said, he turned when he heard loud voices come through the door including Luna.

"If you would just listen to me, all the evidence is there-"

"I don't want to hear your crazy theories" Jacobson snapped at her, Luna glared at him and looked furious.

"What theory?" Harry asked.

"You can't possibly believe her, do you, wrackspurts and such" Jacobson scoffed.

"They exist" Harry replied seriously and Jacobson straightened, eyebrows going up "no, really, she saved me once using Specktreks that allow you to see them" he added then turned to Luna who now had every Auror's attention.

Luna cleared her throat "Monochromes are creatures that manifest rarely every couple hundred years. Large beasts that look unlike any living creature they are the things that nightmares are made of. The exact opposite of patronus they feed off negative energy instead of good. The Monochromes produce red and black smoke to hide themselves from the light, previously thought to be a type of werewolf the monochrome bite can create an unusual power that causes a person eyes to go red and their hair to grow red streaks to channel the power. These powers are the only way to kill a monochrome and if gone unchecked monochromes will manifest uncontrollably" she said reading from her book.

"That's ridiculous" Jacobson said.

"No, it's not" Harry said and raised his wand to his head and extracted his memory and placed it in the pensive and it projected above it. He forced himself to relive the memory. The aurors were quiet digesting what they'd just seen "you know now that I had no time to alter the memory so the question is our next plan of action" he said.

"For now I think it's best you be with your son and we'll have our plan in about 3 days or so. This is something that also involves the Department of Mysteries as well including discussing a plan of action and of course learning more about these Monochrome creatures" Jacobson, though he was a skeptic respected Harry enough to accept truth when he saw it and Harry respected him as Co-head of the Department.

"Then I'll be back once I get how my son is doing" Harry said, he took the floo straight back to the hospital and headed toward the room. As soon as he walked in he saw Jeremy's parents hovering over him still unconscious and James was also out cold. It was a relief too that James was sleeping soundly, he was afraid what James saw and experienced would bring nightmares.

"So, can you give me the details?" he asked the Healer.

"Of course, Mr. Potter, the wound on his eyelid isn't serious and should heal right up within a few days while the wound on his arm was much more serious. Your son's reaction to magical repair is worrying however, it's painful and doesn't have any affects. We ended up needing to resort of muggle means of healing, stitching works just as well as magical healing however it does indeed take longer. He'll heal in a weeks time given the potions he's able to down but absolutely no strenuous activity as the stitches could pull out" she explained.

"And these?" he asked gesturing to his son new odd streaks of red, they had faded from they're former glow. They appeared like hair but a closer look and feel, they were more like muggle wires almost.

"Yes, we feel they act similarly to a cat's whiskers or sensor hairs; cutting them would result in nausea and similar effects" she explained.

"I'm so glad you've worked in the Auror Field" Harry said brightly.

"Ah yes, I believe I've seen everything, your son may go home soon and the other boy can too once they wake" she added.

Harry nodded then went to explain to Jeremy's parents what exactly Jeremy had been through.

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"James, you need to eat" Albus said to his older brother, it had been a week since the incident and James had eaten everything in sight once they got home only to throw it all up. Since then he'd refused food regularly, every once in a while James was convinced to eat a biscuit or something but nothing really sustaining.

James had light grey like always on this time he seemed to have an odd double spectrum about them. Like the lens of a camera, first was the outer lens then the one on the inside. Grey on the outside but when you looked you could see deep blood red inside. It made his seemingly blank gazes more intense, Albus slumped on the bed again.

James was against the wall of pillows Lily had made for him that covered the corner his bed was in. His knees drawn to his chest, his brother looked younger he'd always thought. Especially his dad's old oversize t-shirt, it was big enough that it slipped off his shoulder leaving it bare revealing the bandage. James got the stitches out but was still instructed to take it easy.

Not that James was exactly doing anything strenuous; he hadn't left his room since it happened. James was starting to get bags under his eyes from not sleeping and had lost a bit of weight. "James…" Albus said.

"What do you think is going to happen to me? The monochrome bit me and Jeremy" he said, Albus looked startled. It was the first time James had voluntarily spoken on his own.

"I don't know but Jeremy's at home with his parents and they said he's recovering well so you should recover too but you can't do that if you don't eat" Albus added.

James stared at the plate, a pork roast sandwich, mashed potatoes, and a biscuit. He took it and started eating his food and Albus sighed, his eyes stung with tears which he wiped. "I'm sorry" James patted Al on the head.

"You're stupid" Al said wiping his eyes furiously.

"I know" James replied.

Harry stood in the door way leaning against it, he was thankful his two sons were so close despite James occasional teasing. It allowed them both to except their own faults and each other's without getting jealous of each other. "James, are you feeling alright now?" he asked deciding to walk in.

James looked up at his father, Harry was wearing his Auror uniform, it was a black double breasted coat that was fitted perfectly his father. It was a trench coat of sorts with dark fitted slacks and dark steel toed boots. James always though his father looked most impressive in his Auror attire especially with his wand holster at his belt. James nodded.

"Good, I need to discuss some things alone with you, Albus?" he turned his youngest son who looked disappointed. Once Al had left his dad cast a spell so no one would be able to listen in on them. "Since that time a week ago there've been more Monochromes, we've manage to kill a few but they're too many of them and they're numbers are growing including the victims" Harry explained.

James sat up "there are more like me and Jem?" he asked.

Harry grimaced before nodding "yes, we've managed to work out that these monochromes prefer to target young people because they're an easier prey and in the process they've created a couple that survived. Unfortunately more died than lived, as we speak the Auror Department and the Department of Mysteries is coming up with a special task force. One Auror or Unspeakable to one or more Chromes, that's their decided name for you and others with the Disease. Your ability creates an undeniable weapon against these creatures, if you decide to do it I need to ask you to be the face of Task Force. It's a lot to ask but James, people trust us. It's just how you're born in my shadow and I'm sorry for that but I need to ask you this, will you fight with us?" he asked.

James gaped as his father, his eyes wide; he paused looking down, he definitely couldn't rush this. He closed his eyes; he felt he wanted to do this but why? Why would he want to face those creatures again, his heart clenched at his sister or his brother facing one or anyone else. He and few others could kill them, they could do it while Aurors couldn't, he understood what his father meant by duty now.

James stood up "okay, I'll do it" he said.

Harry couldn't help the proud smile brought to his face "great, let's get you in your new uniform" he said. James raised his eyebrows, his question unsaid but his father only laughed and led him to the headquarters via floo network.

When they entered the room, the 5 kids in the room turned to get a glimpse at James "James" Jem said relieved.

"Hey, Jeremy, how are you?" James asked.

"Not bad, I mean my stitches came out a couple days ago so I'm much better" Jem responded him; Jeremy was James best friend since they were little. He was a little shorter than James with dark brunette hair, his icy blue eyes contrasted about as much as James with the red tint behind them.

"That's good" James said looking at his friend attire, he was wearing close fitting black pants paired with steel toe boots. The shirt was dark red with black clips in place of buttons that stayed in the middle and went all the way up and stopped before the collar which stopped mid-neck. The material looked comfortable and not too hot, there were black shoulder pads that molded seamlessly with the shirt.

"Neat, huh?" he asked "these uniforms are so much cooler than the ones at school" he said.

"Mm" James agreed then turned to his father.

"Come on, James, your uniform is in the bathroom" Harry said, James nodded and walking in and shut the door. He stripped his jeans and t-shirt and started to place his clothes on, the shirt was different though, he noticed that his shirt though the same color and mostly design had tails on it. It was like a tail coat yet not long enough to get in his way so he shrugged and put it on and once he buttoned it he noticed that he had a patch on his right shoulder. Upon closer inspection he found that it said 'Potter' and just above it was a symbol he knew well since he'd seen it on his father, the meaning for Head.

The rest of the people turned as he walked out, Jem whistled long "well you look more impressive than me mate, Captain" he saluted.

James smiled slightly then aimed his gaze to the other 4, one girl about Al's age with blonde hair in a ponytail and another girl with dark hair in a pixie cut. The boys were twins, slightly older than James, they were brunette. The one aspect marking them all was the red tinted eyes and streaks marking them for what they were.

"I'm James Potter" he said blankly nodding his head to them all.

"Kayan Milieu" the blonde girl replied her accent was slightly French and tone soft. She didn't look weak though.

"Evette Nail" one of the twins said "Ethan Nail" the other added.

The dark haired girl looked away once before staring James straight in the eye "Ivy Skillet" she replied.

"For the benefit of the rest of you, my name's Jeremy Bennett but call me Jem, that's fine too" Jem explained.

"Wonderful, now that everyone knows each other's names it's time for training, we have 1 day before we announce the Monochrome Task Force otherwise known as MTF as you'll soon be recognized as. James will be handling media coverage to announce MTF's existence so everyone just focus on preparing yourselves for now" Harry explained.

The training was difficult and left them all exhausted, Harry was clear when he said that they were going through a preview of what Auror Training was like.

James did the best however, he had been running every day for 2 years including being Chaser in Quidditch his second year of Hogwarts. The training was first to scale a 10 foot wall using whatever means possible, they were permitted their wands now. James kept running as he cast a spell which launched him up over the wall easily then he ran for his next obstacle.

The illusion hexes were trickier to dodge but he managed it "stupefy!" he yelled and the auror casting the illusion hexes hit the wall looking shocked. James ran up the hill striking down the obstacles as he went before pausing at the end.

His teammates caught up to him, it was clearly a boggart but it seemed very real and it clear what had to happen. James closed his eyes before opening them, his eyes glowing red and his hair streaks as moving to an imaginary wind. His summoning of his own reverse patronus seemed natural this time, the dragon roared and immediately struck at the boggart and it went back into its box.

"Great job, Jamie but uh leave some for the rest of us next time huh?" Jem suggested, grinning toothily.

James blinked and smiled slightly, his eyes going soft as he chuckled a bit "next time" he agreed. He turned to find himself locking eyes with Ivy; the girl with black ink hair marred only the red streaks. Her eyes seemed an almost unreal blue; the very intensity of Al's and fathers green but a different color. It made the red behind them so much more shocking. She looked away looking slightly down, a blush spreading across her cheeks as she was caught staring.

James looked at her curiously then shrugged it off as they all prepared to go home "James" Kayan mentioned, he turned, she said his name like 'Zhames' immediately she reminded him of his aunt Fleur. "Are you nervous about speaking in front of the press?" she asked, he understood conversation when he heard it so he nodded.

"A little but I've been exposed to fame all my life so it's not as overwhelming as it could be. I'm worried how they'll take to kids fighting though" he replied.

"I hope they will see that it's their only choice, the adults do not have the means to destroy them but we do" she said.

"Me too" James said his eyes clouding over in thought. The rest of the day people went home or wherever they stayed during the day and James went home to prepare himself as his dad explained the plan for the press conference the very next morning.

James went to bed surprisingly easy that night waking in the morning later but managing a shower and looking presentable by morning. "Morning" he said walking to find his family at the table.

"Wow, you look in charge" Lily said looking at his uniform.

"Right?" his dad agreed "ready James?" he asked.

"Of course" James said raising his eyebrows.

His dad grinned, eyes getting a twinkle in them "you know who you remind me of, James, the personality is rather similar in some ways" he said.

He tilted his head waiting and his mum and siblings also looked at him "Professor McGonagall" Harry suggested.

James thought about that, Headmaster McGonagall was a strict woman but fair too, of what he knew about her she was an avid Quidditch fan and a war hero and somehow he didn't mind being compared to her. "Hmm, I don't think I'm quite the stickler though" he said taking a seat and grabbing the plate of eggs, toast, and ham.

"No, but you just remind me of her for some reason" Harry said ruffling his sons hair to which James responded by smiling slightly before he turned to his food.

XXXX

James stood next to his father and Jacobson who was technically Head Auror along with his dad. He kept his eyes forward and attempted not to glare at the reporter which he knew rather well, a gossip columnist. His dad rattled off the news of the recent attacks in a couple main places in the world and they created a special task force to deal with the attacks and reduce the population of the monochromes.

The crowd reacted when his dad explained how the monochromes targeted the young rather than the old so it was reason the disease had only been happening to children. He explained the advantage and waited for the questions to come.

"Mr. Potter, people have concerns on what possibly could children do that trained Aurors cannot" one man asked.

"22 years ago, people asked the same thing about me" Harry said, smiling confidently and people stirred. "However these children you say are more powerful than you can imagine, the abilities they've gained though it is a disease in classification their magic levels are immense. They bear creatures similar to a patronus but these are physical, able to physically damage and kill these monochromes. Some patronus not made by these special children can damage them but they will never be able to kill them" he explained.

"And please note that the use of your patronus against these are able to damage your body, patronus dies then you can guess" Jacobson added.

The crowd gasped and James could sympathize, a monster that could destroy your very body by killing your patronus?

"Why are they so powerful?" a woman reporter asked.

"Dark magic is infused in the patronus, it's the mix of dark magic and light magic that makes these patronus the children produce so powerful" Harry explained.

"Mr. Potter, how do you feel about your son being one of these Powerhouses?" she asked.

"Proud and terrified" he responded truthfully.

"What do you have to say to the people who believe the monochromes are a hoax?" she added.

Harry opened his mouth speak but James stepped forward "I hope they live long lives because these are like nothing you've ever seen" he said.

"James, how do you feel being head of the MTF?" a man asked.

"I'll do my best, I'm not my father but I have confidence I can be a fair leader" he said.

"What's the hardest about this disease to take?" he asked.

"The healing spells don't work so you have to rely on potions and some muggle remedies" James replied.

"There are rumors floating around that your patronus is similar to your fathers, is there any truth to that?" he asked.

"None whatsoever" James responded.

"Okay lets wrap up soon, only one more question" Jacobson said, they all started asking at once.

"One question" he added again and the crowd went quiet and the woman before raised her and Jacobson nodded.

"If you could communicate with the monochromes, what would say?" she asked.

James eyes widened slightly and he suddenly felt fired up, his eyes reddened and his defied gravity slightly as the glow in the streaks filtered the power of his patronus. The dragon appeared, it's movements slow and for once James looked at his patronus, it was one of the rare docile breeds of dragon, the Black Ridgeback dragon. It's body was lithe but strong with a longer snout and red eyes, its tail was so long it hovered slightly around the reporters who were snapping pictures like crazy.

"I'd say don't underestimate us" he said, with that he met his dad eyes and his hair faded to its usual state and eyes returning to grey his dad nodded and he turned to walk back to HQ without another word.


End file.
